Wednesday, May 03, 2006

The killing of Suryanarayana by the Taliban

Outraged. The word that occurs frequently in all the media pieces on the killing of the Indian Engineer by the Taliban.

Beheaded and dropped on a dusty god-forsaken place in a country where an AK-47 sells for 50 bucks. For what? To show who controls the country? To show that they do not want anybody to bring them to decent living standards? I think they do this because development will bring in outside influences. People will start new industries, buy property and settle their families, Universities and schools will come up - in short, Afghanistan will become a place to live.

With education comes knowledge and the thirst for freedom. Men will follow their heart instead of morbid interpretations of the Holy Quran.

I think the leaders of the Taliban are men. Yes, men, since no other species can become as deranged and mad for power as man. They don't even have the excuse of "Jihad" for this murder. This is the evidence that the Taliban surely are terrorists.

Now that the family of Surya has been taken care of, lets turn to India's response. Aside from a few standard scripts on "not bowing to the terror", there is no concrete step taken to punish the people responsible.

My opinion is that the powers that be fear that any military action could trigger off another mass terrorist activity in India itself. "A few for the good of the many" seems to be the guiding principle here. We don't have the courage to follow Israel. There is a report floating around that states that India knows who did it and where they are. Why don't we load a few planes and bomb the whole area? OK, that was maybe a little too much for the "peace-loving" us.

In essence, there are two questions: Will India avenge Surya's death? Can we do anything to prevent such killings?